I Have been using the Tylaska T8 for about the last year. I have a bit of hose thru it which has a SS bar through the centre. It also has a little bit of larger hose over the outside of the small hose to stop it falling straight out. I have had no problems with it releasing just grap the chicken loop and run your hand down till you bump the hose and the kite is gone.

With the two balls on each side (for two days), I had bunches of unintentional releases. Bump it with your elbow and the kite is gone! So I used a piece of q power line actoss the releasae spring and tied it off to the right side of my harness. Slide my hand down my chest and it goes off every time--but never accidentally.

yes, but the wichard is different from the tylaska. they look similar, but the tylaska needs a rigid trigger mechanism. i did lots of testing under load and only a rigid trigger will release under serious load.

i use a threaded ss rod with these rubber compression nuts (hard to describe, found them at home depot) siezed on each end. i'm still tweaking it, as once in a blue moon i will get an unintentional release when the mechanism pushes against my pfd/impact vest.

I do a lot of big boat racing and we use all of these shackles for our halyards, sheet ends, pole lifts, downhauls etc. where there are often heavy loading conditons. When the loads are really big with either of these shackle components it is VERY DIFFICULT TO RELEASE THEM without mechanical aid!!! With the shackles that have pull cords you better make sure you can get a good grip on it the line, and on the trigger release type we often have to use a "fid" (basically a steel spike that gets rammed into the opening) in order to pull the trigger.

I DO NOT USE THESE SHACKLES FOR THIS REASON. I own several types of them, and they are pricey, but I WILL NOT USE THEM FOR KITESURFING.

They are great for use on sailboats and that is what they were designed for. They were not intended for use on Kitesurfing control systems. I can understand how people may have borrowed this technolgy for kitesurfing, however it is hard to actually test them under REAL LOAD CONDITIONS. Try opening one of these with 2000 lbs of load on it. You might discover that you will have a hard time doing so. Then imagine if you were being dragged, lofted, etc at 30 mph or more trying to get your fingers on this contraption. Ain't gonna happen dude. Add to this the possiblitly of sand or other crud gumming up the works...get the picture?

My Wipika Throttle bar has a syetem which I beleive is MUCH SAFER than haing a metal halyard shackle, although still not perfect maybe. IT may be a little more hassle to reconnect the WIpika quick release in the water...but at least you will probably still be alive to work at it or swim in and reassemble the parts. There are other control/safety sytems coming out but I havent studied them yet. In any cse you need something that works easily and quickly without requiring a lot of efffort to release. I am actually thinking of coming up with a design similar to the release system that F-1 car drivers use. There is a chest mounted button that anyone, including the driver can hit with their hand to instantaneously release the driver from the car. My brother runs a LeMans race car team and I am going to do a little research into it.

The manufacturers need to do some better design work and recall all the other systems from the market so that people arent using aniquated unsafe equipment. I actually think that it is bullshit to say "do this at your own risk" if they know there are better solutions out there or arent working on them aggressively. I have to trust that they are working on them, but we've got to get some real smart people to come up with better solutions.

I hope we can come up with better saftey equipment...too many people are DYING every week now it seems.

Roberto : I echo your sentiments exactly, I tried shackles and they don't release under load. The kiters in this area are all finding this out the hard way and most are now converting to my quick release design which is cheap, and easy to make. It is also bomb proof, takes shitloads of load yet releases with nothing. Best of all the release is a 'pull back' piece of tubing so no ball to try to find and pull.

If you are looking for release mechanisms try doing a web search for the 'three ring parachute release' system. Otherwise I have a couple of photo's of a proto version I could email you.

PS my brother is sending me a race car relaease buckle today and I am going to study it to see if it can be modified or borrowed from for kitesurfing use. It will probably be a little expensive, but hey....whats a life worth???